Santiago (Platts)--30Jan2013/456 pm EST/2156 GMT

Mines and smelters in northern and central Chile, the world's largest producer of copper, were operating normally in the wake of a strong tremor which hit the country Wednesday afternoon, industry sources said.

"We have not heard of any impact," said a spokeswoman for Chile's state mining firm Codelco, adding that the company's Ventanas smelter was operating normally. Codelco is the world's biggest copper miner.

Chile's national emergency office ONEMI said the tremor had struck at 17:42 local time registering VI on the Mercalli scale in the cities of Huasco, Tierra Amarilla and Vallenar. However, no damage had been reported to people, infrastructure or basic services, the government agency said.

Chile produced 5.4 million mt of copper last year, accounting for almost a third of global output.

The US Geological Survey said the quake had a 6.7-magnitude.

--Tom Azzopardi, newsdesk@platts.com --Edited by Katharine Fraser, katharine_fraser@platts.com